Patients that undergo MR scans are often highly stressed. The level of anxiety experienced by the patient can be rooted in the nature of the individual but is often also accentuated by other factors related to the scan. A factor that often increases the anxiety level of the patient undergoing a scan is the feeling of confinement in the MR tunnel. The long, narrow tunnel, which is required to develop a sufficiently high gradient field can induce claustrophobia type symptoms in patients who may have no previous experience of the phobia. It is estimated that more than 10% of MR scans have reduced quality due to motion artifacts induced by the nervous movements of the patient [Dantendorfer K., A study of the effects of patient anxiety . . . in magnetic imaging Magnetic Resonance Imaging Vol 15 (3) pp 301-306 1997 series 5].
While the MR tunnel is often cited as the dominant cause of anxiety another factor that increases anxiety is the excessive noise level that emanates from the scanner coils during the scan procedure. In contrast to the narrow tunnel, which has been improved by “open bore machines”, the noise level has remained at nearly the same level for several generations of scanners. Currently, various solutions are offered to create an environment which is conducive to lowering the anxiety level of the patient in the MR-room.
WO 2005/051471 A1 by Philips discloses an example of a solution which includes a video being projected onto the wall and various LED lighting solutions that create an environment that is designed to relax the patient. This solution also includes other features such as rounded room corners to make the room appear seamlessly large and a design ethic that minimalizes clutter and non-esthetic distractions. The patient is also given the feeling of control over his environment during the scan by being allowed to choose which theme is played during the scan: the theme being a collective name for the audio-video and lighting effects that are played during the scan. To reduce the impact of scanner noise on the patient experience, he/she is given air earphones that can supply music of choice. Since, however, the scanner noise is extremely high, in fact close to that permitted without damaging the ear, the masking of the scanner noise with music is not effective.